Black Lightning | Season 2 | Episode 7 : “The Sange”
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KBear Recap [Read time: 5-7 min]
“The joy of minority privilege.” Looker
Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning (Cress Williams) continues to follow the silver substance. As he contacts his daughter Anissa/Thunder (Nafessa Williams), he sees some the Perdi men hung upside down from the trees. Anissa: “Are you okay?” Jefferson: ‘Damn…” Anissa: “What?” Jefferson: “Let’s just say, someone clearly drew a line in the sand.” Anissa: “Well, maybe you should turn back?” Jefferson: “No. What about the baby?” Anissa: “You are always telling me to be strategic and not stubborn. Now I’m telling you, you are not safe going after them alone.” Jefferson tells her he is running low on juice, but he’ll contact her later. Some Sange goons head his way so he goes into camouflage mode. He makes just enough noise to draw them in so he can attack them. He fights the three Sange until his power fails him. This allows them to knock him out.
Jennifer (China Anne McClain) and her therapist Perenna (Erika Alexander) sit in the psychic beauty shop. After some small talk from Jennifer, Perenna asks her why she wanted to speak to her. Jennifer came to talk about Khalil. Perenna suggests she talk to her parents, but Jennifer says they don’t like him, and she doesn’t think they like her that much now. Perenna doubts that, but Jennifer says she feels that way since her parents have her locked away from life. Jennifer: “It’s like I’m being punished for being born this way.” She feels like her parent see themselves as failures for her having powers. Jennifer wishes things could go back to the way they were. Perenna advises Jennifer that she and Khalil should use condoms. Jennifer is embarrassed, she is worried about electrocuting him if they got together. “No one really understands what it feels like to be me, not my parents, my sister…” Perenna: “Not me.” Jennifer didn’t mean to include her.
Peter Gambi (James Remar) monitors radio transmissions to hear if anyone is talking about Jefferson. He chuckles when he hears one woman call Jefferson fine.
Jefferson is tied up in Looker’s (Sofia Vassilieva) basement. They have taken his Black Lightning suit off him. Looker walks in and tells Jefferson she has been an admirer from afar. She thinks they are similar. Jefferson disagrees with that. She says he fights for his people, black pride, while she fights for her people, white pride. Jefferson calls her a racist. She asks why, well he points out the confederate flag on her wall. Looker: “The joy of minority privilege.” She tries to make fake equations, but Jefferson reminds her she has lynched black men. She tells him it was in retaliation for a Perdi killing Deacon a Sange. Jefferson tells her he’ll be glad to bring her down. She doubts he can do anything and calls him ‘black bulb’.
Anaya (Birgundi Baker) and her white baby are in a closed mall with Anissa and Lynn (Christine Adams). Because of everything going on, she hasn’t given her daughter a name yet. Lynn wipes some blood from the baby’s belly button and throws it in the wastebasket. The silver element sample in Anissa’s bag jumps out of the bag and heads towards the baby’s blood. Anaya doesn’t see this but both Anissa and Lynn do. Lynn asks Anissa if Anaya is a meta, and Anissa says no and explains Looker and the Sange. [I’m sure Lynn regrets asking.]
“The power doesn’t come through the suit. Thanks for the charge though.” Jefferson Pierce/Black Lightning
Looker: “Wake up!” She slaps Jefferson in the face to wake him. Looker: “I need to know where the other baby is. Hmmm? You have to admit the irony is amazing. You getting electrocuted.” Jefferson softly chuckles to himself. They shock him and turn it off. Looker: “Where’s the baby?” Looker gets a quick vision of the other baby. [I believe that’s because of the element sample that is near her.] Looker: “The baby … I can sense her. Let’s go! Flip the switch again; leave it on until he dies.” Looker’s men continue electrocuting Jefferson until they think he’s dead. Guess what, he’s not. Jefferson: “The power doesn’t come through the suit. Thanks for the charge though.” He quickly shocks them and beats them up. Jefferson puts his Black Lightning suit back on and goes upstairs to find the baby. He hears the baby crying and picks the baby up. A Sange quickly shows up but runs into Black Lightning’s fist. Jefferson: “Yeah he was a bad man. Let’s go and see mommy, okay.”
Jennifer and Khalil Payne/Painkiller (Jordan Calloway) meet at Garfield’s track. Khalil: “I used to love dusting brothers on this track….You like Caviar?” Jennifer: “Caviar?” Khalil: “Tobias told me, ‘You never forget the first time you can afford to eat Caviar.’ Jen, you deserve a guy that can give you that.” Jennifer: “Okay, where is all this coming from?” Khalil: “Actions have consequences.” Jennifer: “What are you talking about? You’re really starting to scare me.” Tobias calls Khalil, but he screens the call. Khalil: “He’s not going to stop. Not until I kill Reverend Holt…or until he kills me. But I can’t, I don’t want to be like him.” Jennifer: “Then don’t be. My dad says when there’s a problem, you just need to focus on finding a solution.” She advises Khalil to get away from Tobias. Khalil asks how can he when he doesn’t have any money to run. Jennifer suggests to buy time, Khalil needs to convince Rev. Holt to leave town. Khalil says he tried, she tells him to try harder. Jennifer promises him she has his back.
Jefferson is trekking through the woods holding a crying baby. He sees a blinking transmitter laying on the ground. After he picks it up he contacts Anissa. She tells him they are at the old mall. Jefferson warns her that Looker can sense the baby, he doesn’t know how but she is on her way. After the conversation is over, he and the baby fly out of the woods.
“See, what the problem is, you scared of Tobias, but I ain’t.” Rev. Jeremiah Holt
Khalil goes to the church to try to convince Rev. Holt to leave town. Rev. Holt pulls a gun on him. Rev. Holt: “Let me tell you somethin’ son. See, you ain’t no killer. But you best believe I’ll send your black ass to the Lord sure as day turns to night, you understand me?” Khalil convinces the reverend that he doesn’t want to kill him, but Tobias does. Rev. Holt puts his gun away. Khalil tries to tell him how much danger he is in. Rev Holt: “See, what the problem is, you scared of Tobias, but I ain’t.” Khalil says Tobias will kill him if he doesn’t leave town, Rev. Holt tells Khalil that what happens is in God’s hands. Rev. Holt shows Khalil the door, as he is walking down the street, Tobias Whale (Marvin ‘Krondon’ Jones III) pulls up in his car and orders Khalil in his car. Khalil runs away from Tobias down the street. Tobias angrily makes a phone call. Khalil runs down an alley and hides behind some boxes. He calls Jennifer and tells her what has happened. She asks where he is, he asks her not to come because she’ll place herself in danger too. Jennifer: “Would you leave me alone?” Khalil: “No, never.” Jennifer: “All right, then don’t expect me to leave you. Now, tell me where you are.”
Anissa tells Lynn and Anaya to hide with the baby. Lynn brought Anissa’s Thunder suit. Black Lightning wakes up Deputy Chief Bill Henderson (Damon Gupton) and leaves Anaya’s other baby with him for safe keeping. The baby needs changing. [I bet Henderson really regrets he knows Jefferson’s secret identity.] Two 100 gang members walk down the alley using their phone to track Khalil. Suddenly the lights in the alley go out, and their phone’s power goes out. Jennifer has shorted the power in the area. Khalil hears her say, “Follow my voice.” He jumps up a couple of flights of stairs. The room he walks in is totally dark, he says out loud he can’t see. The room lights up with Jennifer holding a ball of energy in her hand.
Looker and her Sange slaves flash into the empty mall. Thunder walks out. Looker: “Cute costume.” Thunder does a thunder clasp and knocks out the Sange. Looker is shaken, but not down. Her nails grow out, looking like claws. She and Thunder begin to fight. The two women are evenly matched. The Sange wake up and help their mistress fight Thunder. They hold Thunder while Looker prepares to deliver a deathblow to Anissa with her claw. Suddenly Black Lightning appears and hits the Sange with a lightning strike. This allows Thunder to break Looker’s wrist and throw her across the room, impaling Looker on a protruding object. She bleeds out her silver element. The Sange wake up and the color of their eyes go back to normal. They are out of their trance and out of her power. As they slowly leave, Jefferson wonders what is happening. Anissa: “Yep. She was controlling them with theta waves.” Anissa begins a long winded explanation about the theory of theta waves. Jefferson begs her to stop. Looker is still alive. Thunder: “What are you gonna do with her.” Black Lightning: “I don’t know. We have to give her to the ASA. They’re the only ones equipped to handle her.” Thunder: “Doesn’t the ASA experiment on metas?” Black Lightning [looking at Looker]: “That’s her problem.”
Anaya’s dad (Warren Snipe) and several other Perdi have finished burying their dead. A jeep with Anissa, Anaya and the babies pulls up. Anaya is nervous, but Anissa tells her to talk to her father. Anaya gets out of the jeep and begins speaking to her father in sign language. She notices her mother’s scarf on one of the tombstones and realizes her mother is dead. When Anaya breaks down, Anissa and one of the Perdi women brings the cooing twins over to their grandfather. He accepts both babies and his daughter.
Anissa is on the couch watching “Girlfriends” with Grace Choi (Chantal Thuy). Anissa is laughing and happy while Grace looks worried. Anissa asks what’s up, Grace says she is fine, Anissa tells her she knows she’s fine, is she okay. Grace tells Anissa she is corny and goes to the bathroom. Her eyes are lit up and the spots have reappeared on her face. She takes her pills and they clear up.
“Stop talking like a damn oracle and speak plain English.” Lynn Pierce
Gambi hears a knock at his door, he pulls out his gun, but it’s Jefferson. Jefferson: “You look pretty good for a dead guy.” He hands Gambi the transmitter he found in the woods, it came from the drone Gambi sent to help Jefferson and Anissa in the first fight with the Sange. Jefferson: “I don’t know whether to hug you or hit you old man.” Gambi tells him he can slug him if it helps. Gambi explains that someone tried to assassinate him and he doesn’t know who called for the hit. He thinks its best he continue to play dead. Gambi: “Safer for your family that I stay dead.” Jefferson [Hugs Gambi]: “You gotta know by now, you are my family.” Gambi: “I’m sorry man.”
Lynn walks in the house and calls for Jennifer. She isn’t home. Lynn calls her cell and only gets her voicemail. She and Jefferson go to Perenna to find out where she is. Perenna: “I can’t violate the trust of the people I work with or my work would be rendered useless.” Lynn: “Listen, I may not have powers like the rest of my family, but trust and believe you do not want to get on my bad side, especially when it comes to my kids. Where is my daughter?!” Perenna admits she doesn’t know where Jennifer is, but she thinks Jennifer is with a boy. Jefferson and Lynn ask in unison “what boy”. Perenna begins talking in her mystical tone again. Lynn: “Stop talking like a damn oracle and speak plain English.” Perenna: “Jennifer’s powers are extraordinary, and I don’t say that lightly.” Lynn: “She’s just like her father.” Perenna: “No. Jennifer’s powers are beyond anything any of us have seen. Teaching her to control them has been both a joy and a challenge because I’ve never worked with anyone with gifts like that. Which is why I must caution you.” Lynn: “What are you saying?” Perenna: “I understand you’re upset and I understand you want your daughter back, but you must be very careful. If you push her further away and she retreats with her powers, with no real support system and no guidance, there will be consequences for us all.”
Khalil and Jennifer are in an abandoned building, she asks him how he feels. Khalil: “Tired, awful, but great.” He asks about her powers, what she can do, just in case he ever makes her mad. She jokes she can electrocute him [which is true]. Jennifer says that her family doesn’t understand her. He says they can’t since they don’t have powers, then he asks do they. Jennifer changes the subject by asking can his mom shoot darts like him. Jennifer thinks she’s a freak and Khalil assures her she isn’t, she is beautiful. They kiss and he gets a shock, but he likes it, he tells her the kiss was on fire. He asks if she wants to leave and she says she does. In the final scene, they are in a convertible heading out of town.
KBear Review [Read time: 1-3 minutes]
Jefferson sees the bodies of some of the Perdi men hanging upside down from the trees. He is running low on power and when he fights three Sange men, his power runs out, causing his capture. Looker sees herself as a white version of Black Lightning. Jefferson sees her as a racist. She tries to electrocute him to find out where the other baby is. When she gets a vision of the child and knows where to go she tells her men to finish electrocuting Jefferson, not realizing she is doing him a favor. Now recharged, Jefferson takes out her men and rescues the baby. He is able to get to the mall Anissa is at in time to help her beat Looker and her Sange. Looker is like some type of vampire, because when they stake her, this frees her Sange. They are going to turn her over to the ASA for safe keeping. I’m sure nothing bad will come from that. Jefferson finds out that Gambi is alive. Their reunion is touching. Whatever Grace has flairs up again. Anissa doesn’t know about it yet, but it’s only a matter of time before she does. Jennifer and Khalil meet at Garfield High’s track. He tells her he can’t kill Rev. Holt, he doesn’t want to be like Tobias, but he doesn’t know what to do. Jennifer tells him to talk to Rev. Holt again, to give himself sometime so he can get out of town. After talking to Rev. Holt again, he runs into Tobias and runs away. Jennifer rescues Khalil from Tobias’ thugs using her powers. Khalil finds out about her powers and is cool with them. He understands her, something she had complained to Perenna that no one did. They decide to leave town together.
This was a major improvement over the last episode. Not as much South Freeland, more about the characters we know and love. The discussion on race felt more honest, heartfelt than it did in the previous episode. They didn’t dilute it as much with the Perdi and Sange talk. This was black and white people under the same conditions we’ve lived under and live under now. The scene with the black men hanging from the trees was impactful. The fight scenes were really good, especially the one between Anissa and Looker. It is funny how everyone on these shows are good at martial arts. I guess they teach you that in the superhero, supervillain classes. Jefferson and Gambi’s reunion was quite touching. You can tell it is hard for those two men to express their true feelings to each other. I liked Lynn jumping all over Perenna for all of her cryptic, new age talk. Perenna should realize Jennifer’s parents are worried, they don’t want to hear a lot of mystical BS from her. The season has been leading up to Jennifer and Khalil getting back together and running off in the night. One of the great things about China Anne McClain is she’s playing the typical CW angst filled teen without making Jennifer annoying. Instead of wanting to smack her, you sympathize with her. She and Jordan Calloway have great chemistry, so I’m interested in what happens to them next.
In the music this week: Black Lightning is in the woods following the silver element when he discovers the hanged black bodies in the woods, Soldier of Love by Sade plays.
During Thunder and Looker’s standoff in the mall, “Creator” by Santigold plays during the fight.
When Khalil and Jennifer are talking in the final scene, Jennifer herself, China Anne McClain’s song “Young Guns (In Love Forever)” plays in the background and takes them down the highway to parts unknown.
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